Download Data description - Intact Forest Landscapes

The Intact Forest Landscapes 2000/2013
The IFL Mapping Team, September 2015
www.intactforests.org
Product description
An Intact Forest Landscape (IFL) is an unbroken expanse of natural ecosystems within the current forest
extent, with no remotely detected signs of human activity, and large enough that all native biodiversity,
including viable populations of wide-ranging species, could be maintained. For the purposes of our
global assessment, an IFL is defined as a territory which contains forest and non-forest ecosystems
minimally influenced by human activity, with (i) an area of at least 500 km2 (50,000 ha), (ii) a minimum
width of 10 km (measured as the diameter of a circle that could be entirely inscribed within the
boundaries of the territory), and (iii) a minimum corridor/appendage width of 2 km. Areas with the
evidence of certain types of human influence are considered disturbed or fragmented and consequently
not eligible for inclusion in the IFL. Specifically, we excluded from the IFL areas which in the last 30-70
years were affected by industrial activities (e.g. logging, mining, oil and gas exploration and extraction)
or by stand-replacement fires in the vicinity of transport infrastructure or resource extraction sites, or
which were cleared for agriculture or transformed into tree plantations. Settlements and infrastructure
(including roads, navigable rivers, power lines, and pipelines) are excluded with a buffer zone of 1 km.
Low-intensity and old (> 70 years) disturbances are treated as a "background" influence, and don’t lead
to exclusion of the area from the IFL. Sources of background influence include historic (abandoned)
shifting cultivation activities, diffuse grazing by domestic animals, low-intensity selective logging
(without road infrastructure), and hunting. Although all IFLs are located within the forest zone (area
with tree canopy over above 20%), some may contain extensive naturally tree-less areas, including
grasslands, wetlands, lakes, alpine areas, and ice, if they are surrounded by forests.
IFL mapping and monitoring relies on freely available medium spatial resolution satellite imagery
(primarily Landsat), high spatial resolution imagery available through Google Earth(TM) platform, and
road and settlement data from open access sources. The IFL concept and mapping method were
developed by a group of research and environmental organizations (Greenpeace, University of
Maryland, World Resources Institute, and Transparent World) and have been used both in regional and
global forest monitoring and research projects. For detailed methodology overview please refer to
Potapov et al., 2008; Potapov et al., 2017, and the IFL project website www.intactforests.org
Product history
The first global IFL map (IFL 2000 v1.0) was prepared in 2005-2006 under the leadership of Greenpeace,
with contributions from Biodiversity Conservation Center, International Socio-Ecological Union, and
Transparent World (Russia), Luonto Liitto (Finnish Nature League), Forest Watch Indonesia, and Global
Forest Watch, a network initiated by the World Resources Institute. The map was updated to v.2.0 by
Greenpeace Russia and the University of Maryland in 2012 using the year 2000 global cloud-free Landsat
data composites that were produced following the methodology developed by Hansen et al. (2013). The
outdated v1.0 and v2.0 datasets are available on the project website www.intactforests.org
The global IFL map update was performed in 2014-2015 by Greenpeace, The University of Maryland and
Transparent World, with support from the World Resources Institute and WWF Russia. The new analysis
shows the extent of the IFL by the end of the year 2013, and their degradation since the year 2000. The
year 2000 dataset was corrected in a few instances. Specifically, IFL boundaries were corrected if the
available high-resolution satellite data from Google Earth (TM) revealed pre-2000 infrastructure or
disturbances that were not clearly visible on year 2000 Landsat data. The boundaries of the forest zone
(area with 20% tree canopy density) were corrected using the year 2000 Landsat-based tree canopy
cover dataset (Hansen et al., 2013), and a few IFL areas were excluded as located outside of the forest
zone. The IFL map update for the year 2013 was based on the same data sources and methodology as
the year 2000 mapping to ensure consistency. In our work we leveraged annual cloud-free Landsat
composites and the 2001-2013 gross tree cover loss map produced by the University of Maryland and
distributed on-line for free (http://earthenginepartners.appspot.com/science-2013-global-forest).
During the IFL update, all human-induced forest clearing, new infrastructure, and burned areas adjacent
to actively used infrastructure (permanent roads, rivers, pipelines and power lines) were excluded from
the year 2000 IFL, and the remaining areas were attributed as the year 2013 IFL if they passed our size
and shape criteria.
In our global IFL assessment, burned areas in the vicinity of transportation infrastructure, agricultural
areas, and logging sites were assumed to be caused by humans and thus treated as an IFL reduction
factor. Regional conservation specialists have challenged the utility of applying globally consistent
criteria at regional scales, specifically in interpreting the causes of fires in boreal Canada. In response to
these concerns, our global analysis differentiates IFL reduction due to fire from other causes. A separate
layer (ifl_change_2000-2013.shp) specifies the proximate cause of IFL area loss: fire-related and nonfire-related alteration and fragmentation.
References
P. Potapov, A. Yaroshenko, S. Turubanova, M. Dubinin, L. Laestadius, C. Thies, D. Aksenov, A. Egorov, Y.
Yesipova, I. Glushkov, M. Karpachevskiy, A. Kostikova, A. Manisha, E. Tsybikova, I. Zhuravleva. Mapping
the world’s intact forest landscapes by remote sensing, Ecology and Society, 2008; 13
P. Potapov, M. C. Hansen, L. Laestadius, S. Turubanova, A. Yaroshenko, C. Thies, W. Smith, I. Zhuravleva,
A. Komarova, S. Minnemeyer, E. Esipova. The last frontiers of wilderness: Tracking loss of intact forest
landscapes from 2000 to 2013, Science Advances, 2017; 3:e1600821
M. C. Hansen, P. V. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S. A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S. V
Stehman, S. J. Goetz, T. R. Loveland, A. Kommareddy, A. Egorov, L. Chini, C. O. Justice, J. R. G.
Townshend. High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change, Science, 2013; 342, 850–3
Product availability and licensing
All up-to-date IFL maps and IFL monitoring results are available from the project website
www.intactforests.org in formats suitable for use in professional GIS and freeware GIS browsers. The
IFL Mapping Team is continuing to improve the IFL base map and to provide periodical updates as new
data, technologies, and more sophisticated sources of information become available. Please check News
& Updates for the information about the latest map releases.
The IFL data is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).
Users may copy and redistribute the dataset and build upon the dataset for any purpose, even
commercial as long as appropriate credit to the data source is provided and changes to the dataset (if
any) are explained.
We suggest referencing the IFL maps as:
Potapov, P., Hansen, M. C., Laestadius L., Turubanova S., Yaroshenko A., Thies C., Smith W.,
Zhuravleva I., Komarova A., Minnemeyer S., Esipova E. 2016. “The last frontiers of wilderness: Tracking
loss of intact forest landscapes from 2000 to 2013” Science Advances, 2017; 3:e1600821
For the web-based applications the suggested reference is:
Greenpeace, University of Maryland, World Resources Institute and Transparent World. “Intact Forest
Landscapes 2000/2013.” Available at www.intactforests.org
Technical description
The global IFL data provided in the ArcGIS shapefile format in geographic coordinates using the WGS84
coordinate system. The recommended scale for data visualization is 1:1,000,000. The dataset includes
two layers: the IFL extent for the years 2000 and 2013 (ifl_2000.shp and ifl_2013.shp). The year 2000
dataset contains the unique IFL patch ID combined from the IFL region code (see below) and unique ID
within the region, e.g. “AFR_25”. The same ID was retained for the year 2013 dataset, however, in case
IFL patch was fragmented into separate patches, an additional unique index was added to the IFL ID, e.g.
“AFR_25_1”, “AFR_25_2”, etc. The area of IFL patches is provided in thousands of hectares. Due to the
limitations and possible uncertainties in exact area estimation, the actual area threshold for the IFL
patch inclusion was 49,000 (instead of 50,000) hectares.
An equal-area map projection was used to calculate the IFL patch size and to define buffer areas around
infrastructure. A separate equal-area projection was used in each geographic region for mapping and
data analysis. These regions, abbreviations, and projections used for area calculation are presented
below:
Africa (AFR)
Sinusoidal; WGS84; Central Meridian (CM) 20°E
Australia and New Zealand (AUS) Albers Conical Equal-Area; WGS84; CM 140°E; RL 0°N; ST1 10°S; ST2 45°S
North America (NAM)
Albers Conical Equal-Area; WGS84; CM 96°W; RL 00°N; ST1 20°N; ST2 60°N
Northern Eurasia (NEA)
Albers Conical Equal-Area; WGS84; CM 80°E; RL 0°N; ST1 50°N; ST2 70°N
South America (SAM)
Sinusoidal; WGS84; CM 60°W
South-East Asia (SEA)
Sinusoidal; WGS84; CM 140°E
The ifl_change_2000-2013.shp layer provides information on the proximate cause of IFL area loss. Each
polygon in this layer has the following information (DB fields):
[CLASS_NAME
[IFL13_ID]
[IFL00_ID]
A proximate cause of IFL area loss, with the following values:
IFL loss 2000-2013
- non-fire related fragmentation/alteration.
IFL fire-related loss 2000-2013
- fire related fragmentation/alteration.
IFL2013
- polygon remains as IFL.
An IFL ID in the year 2013 (if the area considered as remaining IFL).
An IFL ID in the year 2000.
The forest_zone.shp layer delineates the forest zone boundary. The extent of the forest zone was
mapped using the global year 2000 tree canopy cover dataset with a 20% tree canopy cover threshold.
Inland water bodies and naturally treeless ecosystems were included in the forest zone. Fragments of
land in the forest zone with a contiguous area smaller than 500 km2 were excluded from consideration.
The database (DB field [Region]) specifies geographic regions used for the IFL analysis. Geographic
regions within the forest zone were delineated using natural boundaries between forested areas. The
boundary between northern boreal and southern boreal/temperate regions in North America and
Northern Eurasia was based on Landsat data analysis and represents the de-facto dividing line between
lands that have, and have not, been subject to industrial logging as of the year 2013. To delineate this
boundary, we used Landsat images for year 2013 to map the northernmost extent of industrial logging,
applied 5-km buffer around detected logging, and connected resulting polygons.
List of geographic regions and corresponding DB codes
Code
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Region
Africa
Australia and New Zealand
Temperate South America
Tropical and subtropical South America and Mesoamerica
Temperate and southern boreal North America
Northern boreal North America
Temperate and southern boreal Eurasia
Northern boreal Eurasia
West Hemisphere Pacific Islands
Southeast Asia and Oceania